A common application today is the entering, editing and manipulation of text. Application programs that perform such text operation include word processors, text editors, and even spreadsheets and presentation programs. For example, a word processor allows a user to enter text to prepare documents such as letters, reports, memos, etc.
While the keyboard has historically been the standard input device by which text input is performed into these type of application programs, it is currently being augmented and/or replaced by other types of input devices. For example, touch-sensitive pads can be “written” on with a stylus, such that a handwriting recognition program can be used to input the resulting characters into a program. As another example, voice-recognition programs, which work in conjunction with microphones attached to computers, also are becoming more popular. Especially for non-English language users, these non-keyboard type devices are popular for initially inputting text into programs, such that they can then be edited by the same device, or other devices like the keyboard.
Each of these alternative types of text entry typically has associated with it a language model, which is used to recognize the speech or handwriting input, for example, and translate the input to text. Within the prior art, each different type of input has its own language model. This is usually necessary, because the particularities associated with recognizing speech input, for example, are typically different than the particularities associated with recognizing handwriting input, for example. However, the models can be complementary. As an example, a language model tuned for speech recognition may utilize more contextual information to determine what a user intended to be spoken, while a language model tuned for handwriting recognition may only recognize handwriting on a character-by-character basis. The prior art, however, does not provide for sharing of such different language models.
For this and other reasons, therefore, there is a need for the present invention.